Invocations using `kubectl alpha debug` are now deprecated and will be removed in a subsequent release. Update your scripts to use `kubectl debug` instead of `kubectl alpha debug`!

- Kubelet: added `usageNanoCores` from CRI stats provider ([#73659](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/73659), [@feiskyer](https://github.com/feiskyer))
- Introduced support for Windows nodes into the cluster bringup scripts for GCE. ([#73442](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/73442), [@pjh](https://github.com/pjh))

- Lower and upper case feature flag values are now allowed, but the name still has to match. ([#121441](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/121441), [@soltysh](https://github.com/soltysh))
- Makefile and scripts now respect `GOTOOLCHAIN` and otherwise ensure `./.go-version` is used. ([#120279](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/120279), [@BenTheElder](https://github.com/BenTheElder))

- Updated defaultbackend image to 1.5. Users should concentrate on updating scripts to the new version. ([#69120](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/69120), [@aledbf](https://github.com/aledbf))

- Remove the deprecated flag `--experimental-check-node-capabilities-before-mount`. With CSI now GA, there is a better alternative. Remove any use of  `--experimental-check-node-capabilities-before-mount` from your kubelet scripts or manifests. ([#104732](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/104732), [@mengjiao-liu](https://github.com/mengjiao-liu))

### Other (Cleanup or Flake)

- Bump distroless-iptables to 0.2.8 based on Go 1.20.11 ([#121975](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/121975), [@cpanato](https://github.com/cpanato)) [SIG Testing]
- Makefile and scripts now respect GOTOOLCHAIN and otherwise ensure ./.go-version is used ([#122076](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/122076), [@BenTheElder](https://github.com/BenTheElder)) [SIG Release and Testing]

## Dependencies

### Other (Cleanup or Flake)

- Bump distroless-iptables to 0.2.8 based on Go 1.20.11 ([#121962](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/121962), [@cpanato](https://github.com/cpanato)) [SIG Testing]
- Makefile and scripts now respect GOTOOLCHAIN and otherwise ensure ./.go-version is used ([#122077](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/122077), [@BenTheElder](https://github.com/BenTheElder)) [SIG Release and Testing]

## Dependencies

    String JOB_TEMPLATE_SCRIPT = "job.template.script";

    /** The key of the configuration. e.g. 0 */
    String JOB_MAX_CRAWLER_PROCESSES = "job.max.crawler.processes";

    /** The key of the configuration. e.g. groovy */
    String JOB_DEFAULT_SCRIPT = "job.default.script";

    /** The key of the configuration. e.g. 0 */
    String PROCESSORS = "processors";

- Integration testing now takes periodic Prometheus scrapes from the etcd server.
  There is a new script ,`hack/run-prometheus-on-etcd-scrapes.sh`, that runs a containerized Prometheus server against an archive of such scrapes. ([#106190](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/106190), [@MikeSpreitzer](https://github.com/MikeSpreitzer)) [SIG API Machinery and Testing]

    - https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/issues/92250
  
    To address this, the new debian-hyperkube-base image (v1.1.0) uses the
    debian-iptables base image (v12.1.0), which includes iptables-wrapper, a
    script used to determine the correct iptables mode to run in. ([#92493](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/92493), [@justaugustus](https://github.com/justaugustus)) [SIG Cluster Lifecycle and Release]

## Dependencies